It's easy to trust your parents because they've proven that you can rely on them.

Those You Know and Believe in

Reader's Digest asked you which celebrities you trusted, but what about those you see on an everyday basis? Read on to find out whom in everyday life you considered most trustworthy.

The list of the 50 most trusted Canadians is, for most of us, a list of strangers. What about the people we meet on a daily basis, not just through our TV sets and newspapers?

Only half the respondents age 18 to 34 ranked God as very trustworthy. When asked about God’s low ranking, Michael Coren, a prominent Catholic and social critic, said, “Trust is a product of love and experience. We trust friends, partners and parents because they have proven to us that we can rely on them. They have been there for us physically, in the flesh, usually telling us things we want to hear. Easy.

“To trust God requires that we love Him and that means we have to believe in Him and know Him. Not easy. The relationship demands effort and prayer, and the latter has been expunged from the public square and marginalized in private life in Canada for almost a generation.”

Trust in children increases with the age of the respondent: 35 percent of those age 18 to 34 trust them, compared with 57 percent of those 35 to 44, and 93 percent of those 65 and over. This variation may be based more on life experience than a societal trend: “I suspect trust in kids increases with age because the respondents’ kids are older,” says Stuart Soroka, director of the Canadian Opinion Research Archive at Queen’s University. “Ask a 45-year-old if they trust their teenager; then ask a 70-year-old if they trust their middle-aged son. These are two quite different situations.”